All women, regardless of ethnic background, should be offered additional carrier screening prior to pregnancy, said the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

Ethnic-specific screening, pan-ethnic screening, and expanded carrier screening are all acceptable strategies that ob/gyns can use to identify the risk of genetic disorders in potential offspring, reported the ACOG Committee on Genetics.

The authors noted that traditionally, carrier screening was targeted towards specific populations that were at increased risk of disorders, such as Ashkenazi Jewish descent for Tay-Sachs disease, but it has expanded to pan-ethnic screening (screening all individuals for a panel of disorders, regardless of ethnicity) and expanded carrier screening (screening for as many as several hundred conditions).

A patient can request a form of genetic screening not offered by her ob/gyn, but it is up to the clinician to explain the limitations and benefits of the requested screening strategy, as well as offer alternatives, the authors wrote in Obstetrics and Gynecology.

“A growing number of Americans are also of mixed or uncertain ethnic backgrounds, which means we may not identify some people who are at risk of passing genetic conditions to their children when we follow ethnic-based recommendation. But the authors listed several conditions where patients should receive carrier screening, regardless of ethnicity or history: